I get this question once in a while, and my answer is usually a little long. I figured I'd just post it here in case anyone was interested!

My sister has to go on a Glutten free diet. I was wondering if u had any recipes that u know are YUMMY. She is dreading this.

Hey ,

There are a few things she should just be aware of going in. Firstly, she is going to be more hungry more often, which might take her off guard. Since she is removing the foods which expand, she isn't going to feel as full as she's used to. The best thing for her to do for this is have high protein snacks around. Protein is the biggest help, I've found. I usually use nuts or rice crackers/cheese, vegetables and peanut butter (but she needs her own jar of PB...the communal jar is contaminated from sandwiches), and hot chocolate (with real milk and syrup. No skimping).

The second most important thing she's going to be battling is her habits. People like to eat what is familiar to them, and when you have to change that drastically, it sucks. She's going to both give up and re-learn eating, and for a while it's a pain in the neck. I'm used to it by now, but for the first few months you're just constantly reminded of what is forbidden, and that gets old fast. Nothing breaded, nothing fried, no doughnuts, no pizza, no regular noodles, no normal hamburgers, no corndogs, no sandwiches. She can give GF bread a shot (tapioca starch/flour makes the best texture), and there are a few brands out there that make really good GF stuff (write these down: Pamelas, Amy's and Namaste are the BEST. Betty Crocker also has GF cookie mix/cake mix/brownie mix which taste normal). But she's going to have to replace these substitutes for what she's used to. That just takes patience, and it takes about 2 or 3 weeks to really get the hang of it.

In terms of meals:

Breakfasts - almost every cereal on the aisle is out. Except for plain Kellogs flakes, and Trix, every single one has wheat. I have yet to find pancakes or waffles that are normal. Oatmeal and oats in general are tricky, because for very sensitive folk, they are highly contaminated and I avoid them. But if it's no big deal, oats "technically" don't grow gluten in them.

Yogurt, fruit, eggs, potatoes, gf muffins (which can be really good with the right brands) are all good substitutes. But, again, the hardest thing she'll be facing is breaking the habits of eating. My mom eats carbs *constantly*. She tried this once, but her habits of toast and pasta are just too hard-wired.

Lunch -

you can wrap anything in lettuce or corn tortillas. Be careful about chips or anything processed or pre-made. Wheat is in darn near everything in the US. I have perfected nachos, since tortilla chips are safe. Just make sure there's a good dose of protien (i.e., beans), otherwise she'll tucker out mid-day.

Dinner-

Rice and potatoes are a very quick and easy way to get starch/filler in dinners. There are brown rice pastas out there, and they taste horrible and turn grey and are squishy. But if you cover them with sauce, they aren't terrible. They cook a little different, so just keep an eye on them. The BEST spaghetti is corn flour spaghetti. They are a little sweet and have a similar texture to normal spaghetti, and I love them. Mexican food is the easiest route to go, because it's well balanced, easily modified to add a bunch of different ingredients in, and GF due to corn tortillas.

Also: for gravies or thickeners, use cornstarch instead of flour. This also means no gravy in restaurants.

I know these aren't "recipes," but I've found you don't really need GF recipes, per se. You just make the meals without the gluten. But have her try around with some of the Pamela's and Namaste mixes. They're the easiest to make, and she'll enjoy having some regular things to eat during this.

If anything, ice cream and chocolate are still gluten free :) (if they don't have brownies/stuff in them).

Cheers,

Tamarah

I was in charge of VBS last year, and our theme was "The Road to Rome." One of the crafts we did was make laurel wreaths...which is when I realized I was the only one who knew what a laurel wreath was and its significance. Which was a little weird, because I usually feel behind on the intellectual measure. But anywho:

So, since the Olympic games begin today, I thought I'd paste some crafts for kids:Enchanted Learning (one of my teaching supplemental staples...you can find ANYTHING on here. Great for putting together activity/worksheet books for trips! If you're going to Apple Hill, find a bunch of pages on apples, have the kids work on it in the car! Learning about the bugs in your yard: do a lesson/lab with some insect sheets. This is just a great site. It has my $20 membership/year every year. This link is straight to the Olympics section, where you can find laurel wreath crafts! )

And a good dose of Wikipedia:

A laurel wreath is a circular wreath made of interlocking branches and leaves of the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis, Lauraceae), an aromatic broadleaf evergreen. In Greek mythology, Apollo is represented wearing a laurel wreath on his head. In ancient Greece wreaths were awarded to victors, both in athletic competitions, including the ancient Olympics[citation needed], and in poetic meets; in Rome they were symbols of martial victory, crowning a successful commander during his triumph. Whereas ancient laurel wreaths are most often depicted as a horseshoe shape, modern versions are usually complete rings.

In common modern idiomatic usage it refers to a victory. The expression "resting on one's laurels" refers to someone relying entirely on long-past successes for continued fame or recognition.

Academic use

Ovid with laurel wreath, common in poets.

In some countries the laurel wreath is used as symbol of the master's degree. The wreath is given to young masters in the graduation ceremony of the university. The word "Laureate" in 'poet laureate' refers to being signified by the laurel wreath. The medieval Florentine poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri, a graduate of the Sicilian School, is often represented in paintings and sculpture wearing a laurel wreath.

At Connecticut College members of the junior class carry a laurel chain, which the seniors pass through during Commencement. It represents nature and the continuation of life from year to year. Immediately following commencement, the junior girls write out with the laurels their class year, symbolizing they have officially become seniors and the cycle will repeat itself the following spring.

At Reed College members of the senior class receive laurel wreaths upon submitting their senior thesis in May. The tradition stems from the use of laurel wreaths in athletic competitions; the seniors have "crossed the finish line," so to speak.

[edit] Architectural and decorative arts motif

Alexander Garden Grille

The laurel wreath is a common motif in architecture, furniture, and textiles. The laurel wreath is seen carved in the stone and decorative plaster works of Robert Adam, and in Federal, Regency, Directoire, and Beaux-Arts periods of architecture. In decorative arts, especially during the Empire period, the laurel wreath is seen woven in textiles, inlaid in marquetry, and applied to furniture in the form of gilded brass mounts. Alfa Romeo added a laurel wreath to their logo after they won the inaugural Automobile World Championship in 1925 with the P2 racing car.

[edit] Wreath of Service

Wreath of service.

The "wreath of service" is located on all commissioner position patches in the Boy Scouts of America. This is a symbol for the service rendered to units and the continued partnership between volunteers and professional Scouter . The Wreath of Service represents commitment to program and unit service.[1]"

Enjoy!

"Dolly - who has been wed to Carl for 44 years - said: "I usually get up at 3am. I don't require a lot of sleep and if I get tired, I'll take a powernap during the day.

"When my Carl is awake, I'll put on my make-up and roll my hair a little, because I don't want to look bad for him, do I?"

I'm not saying I can do this, but I do make an effort when I can. Some days are spent in pajamas (truth be told), but other days I wear what would make Ben happy. Why? Because I love him, and men are very visual...and I like him to be visual with me

I know this is a pretty anti-feminist way of thinking, and women these days are more likely/encouraged to do what they want instead of what anyone else; which is fine. It's certainly a great step out of bloomers for those of us with a little more tiger in their spirits. But that doesn't mean you leave your man out in the cold! A good marriage is made of gifts. The gift of service (he cleans the kitchen), gifts of voice (you actually tell each other you love each other), gifts of sight (your smile, your appearance, your demeanor), gifts of intimacy (sex is important! Don't think it isn't!).

So anyway, I have to get my day started. I just wanted to pass along Dolly's words of wisdom :)

I'm watching "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" with the kids (it's their first time), but there is equal amounts of commercials as movie playing.

So there is a commercial for a Dreamie.

Dreamie.com "It's a top sheet, it's a bottom sheet, all in one!"

It's a sleeping bag.

Okay, this is a lecture+lab series. In order to understand my mental meanderings, you're going to have to watch this 20 minute clip from Mike Rowe:Mike Rowe on Discovery Realization and Lamb Castration

Once you've done that, we can begin

This was something I'm still wrapping my head around. There is so much behind what he's saying that leads me down a dozen mental trails; but it was his, "if I was wrong about this one thing" that reminded me of a college class I had (a million years ago). (okay, really only about 8 years ago.)

The prof. was examining Frost poetry ("the road not taken"), and said he had a teacher once who was teaching it completely wrong. He was saying the author took the main road; and my prof. suggested that maybe the poem actually said he took the side road not commonly taken. This made more sense to him when he read it. And his teacher said, "Oh. I hadn't thought of that. Yes, that makes more sense."

That just leads me to think that there are things that I feel just aren't right, even though authorities and experts say they are. And maybe they could be wrong about what we accept as truth. Goodness knows society and mankind are constantly rearranging what we accept as normal as it is. Jim Crow laws were around in my parents' day. That just would not fly today, thankfully. 75% of Americans disagreed with interracial marriages in 1983 (down to something like 17% now). Women (of any color) weren't able to vote until 1920. That is really unreal for me to internalize. I haven't met many people, or women, who are freaked out by that fact, but it freaks me out. Because if it is something they can give to us, it is also something they can take away, which is why the outcry and outrage regarding the Patriot Act really should have gone somewhere farther than internet forums. Because the underlying issue is our independence: Americans are built by a culture of rebels...puritanical rebels, but rebels nonetheless. We moved West out of England (or Scotland, for some of us) to seek a greater freedom for ourselves and our families. We were able to do crazy things like go to the moon, reinvigorate agriculture (which is a dying breed, may I say), appreciate God's splendor in Yellowstone, Yosemite, Black Hills, Mesa, South Dakota's mountains, Pennsylvania's forests, California's beaches...it is just an amazingly beautiful nation which sparks poets and artists to expand their ideas to wider areas which in turn reshape our cultural asthetics. Any censoring or limiting of this explorative mindset of life goes against the grains sowed into this land.

But I digress.

So if big things like voting can change, maybe little things can change if we just spoke up sometimes. And not just in political arenas: if you've been reading this for a while, you know I have this huge conflict with American suburban evangelical churches. I can hardly put my finger on what exactly it is. It's more of an umbrella of apathy and avoidance. I spent a few years thinking, "I'll be part of the solution and work with the authorities within to make the church stronger." Since that's what they call the congregation to arms about regularly: more converts, more evangelizing, more cell groups.

But that's not what they need....and that's another blog post.

Anyway, Mike Rowe's presentation just got me thinking.

I was reading through this today, and I came across a page that made a lot of sense to me.

The four gospels are generally broken down by to whom they are speaking. So Matthew is speaking as a Jewish Christian to Jews; Mark is a Jewish Christian speaking to Romans; Luke is a Gentile Christian doctor speaking to Gentiles; and John was a Jewish Christian speaking to Greeks. Their different audiences make a difference with what details they include. So, like, Matthew will have a lot more details about Jewish history and ceremonies because it had particular relevance to Jewish readers.

So I got to page 54, and he was speaking about something that was personal to me, which is kind of what I've been missing for a long time. Now, I don't think this is a breakthrough day for me, and I'm going to be a different person after today. This is more along the lines of feeling comforted that someone understands my unique position as a Christian, just as Mark understood Romans' unique position.

Mark starts with one time when he met Billy Graham: "Since every presentation of the gospel is culturally expressed, the form of its presentation must continually change as the culture changes, while the content of the gospel remains unchanged and truthful. For example, Billy Graham's booklet "Steps to Peace with God," presents the gospel in terms of peace. It was designed for people who had suffered through a horrendous World War and were desperately longing for peace. God has used it in the lives of may thousands of people in past years. But younger people who have never experienced the horrors of a war like the World Wars and Vietnam are less likely than their parents and grandparents to identify with the thrust of a gospel of peace."

So, while the content is still applicable and truthful, the focus is different in order to be culturally and personally relevant to a certain group of people. He continues,

"Likewise, the late Bill Bright's Campus Crusade for Christ presentation of the four spiritual laws explains the gospel in terms of four laws that regulate the spiritual world in the same way that four laws govern the physical world, according to Newtonian physics. But younger generations familiar with quantum physics and chaos theory are increasingly less likely to agree with the finality of Newtonian physics or natural laws. They are therefore less likely to relate to a gospel presentation of spiritual laws.

"Sometimes you hear the gospel presented in terms of a private religious experience and a loving personal relationship with Jesus. This approach to the gospel made sense to a countercultural hippie generation that had abandoned traditional institutions and authorities (such as the church) in favor of direct and unmediated encounters with God through everything from alternative religions to drug use. But ...."

and this is where my ears perked up.

"But younger people from broken homes in a shattered lonely society desire a community of faith in which to journey and are less likely to see the appeal in an autonomous faith. In addition, people who were raised apart from the church often have less resistance to ancient traditions and institutions. These are foreign experiences that intrigue them, rather than bad memories that repel them."

This is probably why the church of Mars Hill in Seattle works so well for people and families my age: They focus a LOT on community groups. Community groups meet together over a meal and study the Bible together in order to have a closer relationship with Jesus.

This is very different from my experiences with small groups or cell groups, which (to my cynical heart) seem to be giving their list of small/cell groups another line, which proves the church's worth and prosperity.

Anyway, it was a very comforting read for me this morning. Mark Driscoll really has his finger over the pulse for a large group of Christians. It's kind of like spaghetti sauce (stay with me on this): There was a study done by a research group in the 80s to see what kind of sauce people prefered. At the time it was basically Ragu` or Prego, and both were rather thin sauces. Well, this study found out that 1/3 preferred thin sauce, 1/3 prefered moderately thin and spicy sauce, and an entire 1/3 liked chunky sauce.

The problem was: no one was making chunky sauce at the time; to which Prego said, incredulously, "are you telling me 1/3 of our customers are not being served what they actually like?!" After which Prego came up with a huge spread of chunky sauces, and the 1/3 (and some converts) rejoiced.

That's what it seems like my generation is: the lost 1/3. But Mark Driscoll saw this disenfranchised group and spoke to us in a way that we could uniquely relate, and I am so grateful.

This is the first time I have seen Anderson Cooper look shaken about what he is witnessing in Haiti. Right now he is reporting the dump trucks filled with bodies, taking them to unmarked and undocumented mass graves.

My body reacts to the grief this country is experiencing. I am glad many people I know have been able to be taken to Haiti to help aid efforts. But it is heartbreaking to watch this from thousands of miles away.

There are so many agencies that are helping get food, water, aid and medical care to the island; we can all help, even if we can't be there in person. If you can, please donate something to help:

The American Red Cross

Mercy Corps

World Vision Donation Center

Unicef

Even Whitehouse.gov is putting aid for the Haitians front and center

Samaritan's Purse

So, these are some ways you can help. I know there are also local fire departments that are sending men over, so if you called your local police and fire departments, you can probably find ways to help.

Ben was telling me some stories he heard about China recently, since their new Chinese employees have just come over to visit the office for the first time. Apparently, there was a monster snowstorm in Beijing recently, and the entire city was shut down due to snow.

The Chinese government's response to this was to send 350,000 men to Beijing and dig the city out in a day. That is really a remarkable feat, to coordinate that much manpower for one city.

I just think about the whole world coming together to help Haiti through this, and I sincerely pray people are helped with great haste, thoroughness and compassion.

I think it is also important for America, in particular, to ignore mediaheads who are distracting the focus of this crisis away from the devastated country, and onto their own agendas. Now is the time to save lives, and support those who are able to fulfill this.

This happened to Nova, and a little bit in Glenn; but it is really freaking people out that Conrad is orange.

(yes, orange)

I think people are worried are worried about jaundice, but really this is a very healthy symptom:

"Carotenemia is a benign condition most commonly occurring in vegetarians and young children. Carotenemia is more easily appreciated in light-complexioned people, and it may present chiefly as an orange discolouration of the palms and the soles in more darkly pigmented persons.[4] Carotenemia does not cause selective orange discoloration of the conjunctiva of the eyes (orange coloration over the sclera), and thus is usually easy to distinguish from the yellowing of the skin caused by bile pigments, in states of jaundice. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carotenosis)"

Since most of what he eats is orange (carrots, Gerber meat/vegetables, yams, apricots, peaches...all orange), and he has very fair skin, he just turns orange. I've cut back on how much orange foods he is eating and replaced them with other things like stewed sweet potatoes or squash (which is still a little yellow), which taste similar to what he's used to...just not orange. His color has toned down a little, but he's still orange enough that women ask about it. Even my OB/GYN and his nurse were worried the first time they saw him (when he was at his peak of orange); the funny thing is, they are both black, as are the other nurses in this station. So the changes of them seeing their own babies orange are nil: just us pale Scottish folk

So, nothing's wrong :) He's just a healthy baby.